Guard Lauded For Foiling Robbery

HAMPTON — Officers are investigating whether the Food Lion holdup is related to an earlier spree.

A masked gunman critically wounded in a failed robbery at a Food Lion Monday night and his roommate remain suspects in a series of violent business robberies since January, Newport News and Hampton police say.

"We are looking at the others to see if these two may have been involved," Cpl. James West, a Hampton Police spokesman, said Wednesday.

While Newport News police acknowledge some similarities in Monday's robbery at the Food Lion on Kecoughtan Road with three holdups in their city, Officer Harold Eley, a department spokesman, said detectives would wait for forensic test results before commenting about any possible break.

A security guard at the Food Lion on the 3800 block of Kecoughtan Road fired one shot at Caleb Joshua Carr when Carr refused an order to drop his pistol and surrender around 10:45 p.m. Monday, West said. He said Carr had jumped the counter, pointed the weapon at a cashier and demanded money. The bullet struck Carr in the head. The store's security camera recorded the incident.

Police said Carr, 19, shared an apartment in the 3500 block of Kecoughtan Road with John Jamar Small, 25. The two men also worked together washing dishes at the International House of Pancakes on West Mercury Boulevard and North Armistead Avenue.

"We're all shocked. Caleb was the kind of kid you never thought would be in any trouble," said Joe Yurko, owner of the IHOP where Carr and Small worked.

West said officers found evidence in the apartment that tied Small to the January robbery and gunfire at the Food Lion at Nickerson Plaza that wounded a cashier and bagger.

As a result of that evidence, detectives charged Small with 21 felonies, including robbery, maiming; burglary; abduction; using a firearm and wearing a mask in public.

Carr, who remained in critical condition at Riverside Regional Medical Center Wednesday night, had not been charged as an accomplice in the other case.

Hampton police believe the spree began Jan. 11 when two masked gunmen robbed Chanello's Pizza, across the lot from Food Lion on Kecoughtan Road. Detectives also suspect the pair robbed the 7-Eleven in the 3700 block of Kecoughtan Road on Jan. 24.

Newport News police identified three robberies in early February that appear related -- McDonald's restaurant on the 15400 block of Warwick Boulevard; Crown gas on 12900 block of Jefferson Avenue and the 7-Eleven on the 13100 block of Warwick Boulevard.

The similarities, which included descriptions of the gunmen and clothing, prompted the two police departments to form a task force. The robberies apparently stopped after the media reported the response.